With a Geekbench 2 score of 3,188, Apple's nemesis, the Galaxy S4, scored 91.6 percent better than the iPhone 5 on the test (scoring a limping 1,664), and 14 percent better than the number-two phone, the HTC One, which managed 2,798 on the test.

The result closely mirrors the same benchmark run in March 2013 by Android Authority, cited by Geekbench developer Primate Labs here. In that test, the S4 hit 3,163 and the iPhone 5 1,596.

It's hardly surprising, of course, that a more expensive device with a 1.9 GHz quad-core processor would outperform the dual-core 1.2 GHz iPhone 5. Which? notes that while getting the fastest on the market also mean forking out the highest price, in the midfield, it's less clear: the Sony Xperia Z was only fractionally ahead of the Google Nexus 4, but the former is more than ₤200 ($US308, $AU334) more expensive than Google's offering.

The test results will also be a disappointment for BlackBerry, which has been pinning hopes for a revival on its recently-released Z10, which only managed to score 1,698 on the Geekbench 2 tests. ®